724. The symbolism of seven each as what is holy has also been demonstrated [§716]. Here, though, it symbolizes holy truth, which is holy because of its origin in goodness. There is no such thing as holy truth except for the truth that comes from goodness. We can speak all manner of truth from the Word and so from memory, but unless love (love for our fellow humans) is what brings it to our lips, it can by no means be described as holy. If love and charity are indeed the qualities that bring it forward, on the other hand, we then acknowledge and believe what we are saying, and so it comes from the heart.
The case is the same with faith, which so many people claim is the only thing that saves. 1 Unless love or charity is what gives rise to faith, it is not faith at all. Love and charity are what consecrate faith. The Lord is present in love and charity, not in faith separated from them. Detached faith has our own selves at its core, and in us there resides utter filth. When we separate faith from love, what we privately seek in speaking is either to hear ourselves praised or to profit monetarily. 2
We can all recognize this phenomenon from our own experience. When an individual claims to love another, to prefer that other to anyone else, to acknowledge that other as more noble than anyone else, and so on, and yet thinks otherwise privately, that individual makes such a claim with the lips alone, denying the words at heart and sometimes even mocking them. People do the same with faith. Here is something I have come to know extremely well from frequent experience: Some of those who most hate the Lord and persecute the faithful in the other life are people who preached about the Lord and faith during bodily life with such eloquence and such a devout facade as to astound their listeners, although they were not speaking from the heart.
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg here refers to the Protestant doctrine of the justification by grace through faith alone. The doctrine holds that God forgives people's sins and saves them from damnation through the grace he bestows because of their faith, not through any merit they have won by doing good works for others; it was particularly, though not exclusively, held by Lutherans. For further discussion of the doctrine by Swedenborg, see True Christianity 355-377 (and also his 1763 work Faith 44-72); for a recent, brief overview adding significant historical nuance, see Erwin 2006, 90-92. [SS]
2. This was written in a time and place in which the outward show of piety was a prerequisite for public office and a career in the church could be quite lucrative. The subversion of religion for private advantage is a prevalent theme in Swedenborg's theological writings (see, for example, Secrets of Heaven 2027:3, 2261:2, 2329:1, 2354:2, and Revelation Unveiled 784, 799, to mention just a few passages), though it is often stated obliquely, as here. [LHC]